


stories from another room

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: For Even a Day [11]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Royalty AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:09:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29814441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: Princess Katherine's life at Manhattan Castle has never been boring.
Relationships: David Jacobs/Jack Kelly, David Jacobs/Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, Jack Kelly & Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, Sarah Jacobs/Jack Kelly, Sarah Jacobs/Katherine Plumber Pulitzer
Series: For Even a Day [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1705639
Comments: 15
Kudos: 21





	stories from another room

**Author's Note:**

> SO. I wrote distant, right? and then I was like "what if I wrote a fic that focused on katherine or the katherine/sarah relationship in this au" and then five thousand some words later I had this fic. I hope you guys like it! I'm really happy with how it's turned out!

Katherine met her three favorite people in the world when she was seven years old.

The first, of course, was Jack. Jack was the whole point of the thing, because she and Jack were betrothed. The idea was that she could spend a little while every year at Manhattan Castle, getting to know her future husband and her future home. Katherine wasn’t so sure about all that, but she liked Jack well enough so far. He had dark hair that always seemed fluffed up and messy, hazel-green eyes that always seemed to sparkle with mischief, and a kind smile that always seemed to come out when he saw her.

But on her very first visit to Manhattan Castle, Katherine didn’t just meet Jack.

“Kitty,” Jack said, because even as an eight-year-old he was something of an aggressive nicknamer, “this’s Sarah and Davey. Well, _David_ , only we don’t call him that.”

Katherine laughed. “We don’t?”

“We don’t,” Jack said firmly.

Sarah and Davey seemed nice enough, too. Every time Katherine had seen them so far they’d been side-by-side, a few steps away from Jack. They talked in low voices to each other, walking with Sarah’s arm tightly wound around Davey’s.

Sarah stepped away from her brother now, though. “Ignore Jack, Kitty, he’s just being weird. Or would you rather we call you Katherine?”

“I don’t mind Kitty,” said Katherine.

Davey laughed, and it made Katherine smile reflexively back. Davey just had one of those laughs, where it’s bright and special and unavoidably contagious. “Good, because once Jackie changes your name it stays that way forever.”

Davey and Sarah looked a lot alike, Katherine thought. They were, at the time, pretty much exactly the same height, with the same narrow face and grey-blue eyes. Sarah’s hair was a little lighter than Davey’s, but Katherine could see where Davey’s wild curls could grow into Sarah’s looser waves if he let them.

They were both, Katherine thought, very pretty.

Sarah smiled at her, wide enough to show the half-grown-in tooth on her upper left side.

“What did you think of the prince?” Katherine’s mother asked her later.

“He was nice,” Katherine said. She thought about Jack’s kind smile, about the way he’d pretty much declared them friends immediately. She thought about his two clever, quiet shadows, always walking with their arms tightly entwined. “Yeah. I liked him.”

She didn’t know, then, just how important her three new friends would become. She was just glad to have liked them at all.

\--

It is Jack’s fifteenth birthday, and Katherine has spent the better part of the last two hours holed up in her rooms with Sarah getting ready. They’d waved off help – the two of them are more than capable of dressing each other, and Katherine feels more comfortable with Sarah than just about anyone else in Manhattan Castle.

Forty-some minutes into Sarah putting up her hair, Katherine can’t help wondering if they should’ve let a professional handle this after all.

“Everything going alright back there?” she asks, trying to hold in a laugh.

Just for that, Sarah tugs on the braid she’s working on. “ _Yes_ , thank you. You’re gonna look awesome.”

“You sure?” Katherine teases.

“I am,” says Sarah. “Not that it’s hard or anything, since you’re so pretty to begin with. But this is going to look good!”

_You’re so pretty_ sends a funny, fluttery hum through Katherine’s chest. It’s not the compliment – not to brag or anything, but people tell her that all the time. Jack tells her so every time he draws her. And anyway, it’s not even like she really says it as a compliment anyway, more like a statement. She could’ve said _since your hair is red_ and it would’ve sounded the same.

No, it’s something about _Sarah_ saying it. About Sarah, still in shift and stays because the dress she’s wearing tonight doesn’t let her lift her arms quite high enough for this, with her fingers threaded through Katherine’s hair, saying _you’re so pretty_ like it’s a fact of life that makes Katherine’s heart speed up.

“Thanks,” Katherine says and it comes out a little breathier than she really means it to.

“Done!” Sarah says in place of responding. She pats Katherine’s shoulders and comes around in front of her. “Oh.”

“What?” says Katherine, nervous. She reaches up, her fingertips just brushing one of the little tendrils Sarah had set around her face.

“No, nothing bad,” Sarah says quickly. “You just look – oh, Kitty.”

“Is something on my face?”

Sarah laughs. “Katherine. You’re gorgeous. You’re so pretty it actually caught me off guard for a second.”

That sends a funny chill up Katherine’s spine.

“Oh,” says Katherine.

Sarah smiles at her.

Katherine smiles back.

“Can you help me with my dress?” says Sarah.

Katherine nods. Sarah grins and moves away to step into her dress, and once she gets her arms into the sleeves she puts a hand on the front to hold the bodice in place and turns so that Katherine can do up the back.

Sarah’s dress has something like a thousand buttons up the back, each with its own embroidered loop to hook through. The buttons are small and decoratively carved, each one a delicate little flower. Katherine’s fingers feel a little bit numb as she hooks each button into its loop, and she fumbles over a few of them.

“Everything alright back there?” Sarah says, a teasing echo of Katherine.

“These buttons are the size of my pinky fingernail,” says Katherine, chewing on her lower lip.

Sarah laughs, light and airy, and Katherine can’t help but smile along. “I’m sorry, Kitty, I know they’re a hassle.”

“They’re so pretty, but there are so many,” says Katherine. She hums, fiddling with the last few. “I’m almost done.”

“No rush,” says Sarah.

Katherine hums again. When she gets the last button through its loop – it takes her three tries, because Sarah isn’t sitting up straight and her shoulders are pulling the fabric apart – she runs her fingertips along the row of buttons, making sure she hadn’t missed any and checking that the modesty panel isn’t caught on itself and leaving a gap.

She hears Sarah take in a sharp breath that she doesn’t seem to release until Katherine lets her hand drop to her side.

Sarah’s skirt is sitting a little crooked over her hips, like the dress had twisted slightly when she put it on, and Katherine has to resist the urge to smooth the fabric out for her. Sarah is more than capable of doing that herself, and Katherine isn’t quite sure her racing heart could handle gently running her fingers over Sarah’s waist to straighten her skirt.

Katherine steps back. “All done.”

Sarah turns, her skirt swishing around her ankles as she does. “How do I look?”

They’d done Sarah’s hair first, and the style is a little less complex than Katherine’s, just two delicate braids on each side swept back to the crown of her head, pinned in place with a bejeweled clip that matched the shimmery green of her dress, the rest of her hair falling in its loose curls and swept over her shoulder.

She has three little glass “gems” attached in a row under her left eye, following the curve of her cheek, and a little bit of cool red just barely coloring her lips. Katherine remembers, flushing a little bit pink, the way Sarah had leaned close to match the makeup on her, her fingertip just grazing Katherine’s lip.

“That bad, huh?” Sarah says lightly when Katherine takes a moment too long to respond.

“No,” says Katherine. “No, not at all, you’re – wow. Wow.”

Sarah laughs. “Thanks.”

She looks at Katherine for a long moment, then opens her mouth like she’s going to say something else, only –

“Are you two _done_?” Davey’s voice says through the door. He knocks hard a few times. “Come on, it’s time!”

“Coming!” Sarah replies, and something sounds off about her voice but Katherine can’t quite place it.

Later, Sarah catches her eye across the ballroom. She’s laughing at something Jack just said, her head thrown back and her hand on Jack’s shoulder for balance.

There’s something about it that sends a warm hum through Katherine. She loves seeing her friends happy, of course, especially in such a pure, unguarded way, and yet –

Well, she can’t help wondering what it might be like to kiss Sarah’s beautiful, perfect smile.

When that thought hits her, Katherine can feel the floor fall out from under her. She’s not supposed to want to kiss Sarah, she thinks frantically. She’s supposed to like Jack. She’s _got_ to like Jack.

But, nice as Jack is, being around him has never made Katherine feel like Sarah does.

(She won’t learn until later that he never really will.)

Katherine spends about a week trying desperately to un-know about the way she feels about Sarah. It isn’t working.

Sarah, used to spending most every waking moment within about eight feet of Katherine, notices that Katherine is pulling away somewhat.

She corners her one night after dinner.

“Did I upset you, somehow?” Sarah asks, tipping her head to one side the way that she and Davey both do when they’re thinking.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Katherine lies.

“You’ve barely talked to me in days,” says Sarah.

“I don’t –“

“Katherine,” Sarah cuts in. “Just tell me.”

Katherine feels her cheeks heat up, and she looks away. “It’s nothing.”

Sarah’s hand finds Katherine’s. Katherine’s head snaps back up, her eyes meeting Sarah’s.

“Kitty.”

“I really like you, Sar,” Katherine blurts. “I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t, but I just –“

“You like me?” Sarah interrupts softly.

Katherine nods.

“Not just like a friend?”

Katherine nods again.

Sarah smiles at her, but her brow is still faintly furrowed. She shakes her head. “Can I kiss you, Kitty?”

“We shouldn’t,” says Katherine.

“But do you want me to?”

Katherine chews on her lower lip for a moment. Sarah’s just had a growth spurt, and Katherine has to look up to meet her eye when they’re this close together.

Katherine really wants to be this close to Sarah Jacobs all the time.

“Yes.”

\--

The fact of the matter is that Katherine is not particularly interested in Jack – at least not the way she’s supposed to be. She’s done a fair amount of self-assessment and decided that it’s a Jack-specific disinterest, rather than a distaste for boys all together.

No, it can’t just be that she doesn’t like boys, because her brain goes all fuzzy when Davey smiles at her.

Sarah thinks it’s funny that Katherine likes both her and Davey like she does. For all that the twins look alike, their personalities differ pretty dramatically. Sarah is high energy with a quick mouth and a quicker temper, where her brother is usually more subdued, sneaking by on dry sarcasm in place of Sarah’s lengthy tirades.

Since Davey spends his whole life balancing out the people in his life – always side-by-side with Sarah or Jack or Race or Katherine herself – she supposes that’s not much of a surprise.

Anyway. Katherine likes Davey quite a bit.

Not quite so much as she likes Sarah, she’s found, but oceans more than Jack.

“Why not Jack, do you think?” Sarah asks, stretching out across the couch, her legs in Katherine’s lap.

Katherine shrugs. “I don’t know, it just feels _wrong_. It’s almost, like, the opposite of how I feel about you, actually. I think about kissing him and it makes my stomach flip over in a nauseous way instead of an excited one.”

Sarah laughs.

“Sure, go ahead and laugh,” says Katherine. “You think about kissing _Davey_ romantically and tell me how it feels.”

“Oh, ew, why?” says Sarah. She kicks Katherine playfully. “Davey’s my brother, not my future husband.”

“Well Jack feels more like a brother than a romantic prospect,” Katherine says. She sticks her tongue out.

“That sounds like a miss on this whole _have you grow up with your future husband_ plan,” Sarah points out.

Katherine shrugs again. “I don’t think it’s all bad. Jack and I aren’t that compatible, fine, but he’s my second best friend in the world. And anyway, this way I get to grow up with you and Davey and the boys, too.” She runs a hand up and down Sarah’s shin, thinking. “I’m all alone at home.”

“You have five siblings,” says Sarah.

“It’s not like here,” says Katherine, shaking her head. “We’re not close, not like you all. And Mother and Father aren’t exactly involved in our lives, either.”

“Well,” Sarah says, in the tone she always adopts before she says something she knows is incredibly practical, “in four and a half years, _this_ will be your home year-round, and you won’t have to be alone ever again. In fact, I don’t think any of us will allow it.”

Katherine giggles at that. “And what if I want to be?”

“Nope,” says Sarah, popping the p. “You’re stuck with us.”

“There are far worse things,” says Katherine.

A few days after that, they have an interesting conversation with Jack and Davey, in which Jack admits that he is exactly as thoroughly disinterested in Katherine as she is in him.

More interesting, Katherine thinks, is Jack’s admission that he’s been fooling around with Davey. She’s not jealous at all, but it’s interesting to know that something has come of the way Davey looks at Jack like the shorter boy hung the moon and stars.

“So have we,” she says, nodding to Sarah, in place of commenting.

“Do you even like boys at all?” Jack asks, in that tone he sometimes uses when he can’t quite stop himself from saying something he knows he probably shouldn’t.

“Yes,” Katherine admits, her gaze shifting from Jack to Davey. He flushes red to the tips of his ears, but he smiles. Katherine glances back at Jack. “Do you like girls at all?”

“Yes,” Jack replies. He winks at Sarah. Sarah laughs and winks back.

The four of them come to an arrangement. It’s nothing formal, but Jack doesn’t mind Katherine seeing Sarah or Davey, and Katherine doesn’t mind Jack seeing Davey or Sarah, and Sarah and Davey have decided amongst themselves that they’re content to share Jack and Katherine so long as they don’t have to think about what the other gets up to.

“What do you want out of this?” Katherine asks Davey one afternoon, as the two of them walk arm-in-arm through the gardens. “Out of us?”

“Fun,” Davey says after a long moment. Katherine’s hand is tucked into his elbow, and he touches the fingers of his free hand to it. “I like you very much, Kitty. I like your company; I like how easy it is for you to make me smile. I like arguing with you.”

Katherine laughs. She and Davey argue a lot, usually just for the sake of having an argument. They’re both very good at it.

“We’ll both be better off if this isn’t complicated,” Davey finishes. “So, yeah. Fun.”

“With Jack,” Katherine says slowly. “Is it complicated?”

Davey makes a sound that he probably means to be a laugh, but ends up falling somewhat short. “Oh, Kit. Like you wouldn’t believe.”

\--

There’s this day when Katherine is eighteen and she’s sitting in on a council meeting in Jack’s kingdom, between the two Jacobs twins, and she watches as Jack’s world falls apart at the seams.

She cannot tell exactly what he’s thinking, only that one moment he’s sketching idly while he listens to Ernie Shipton say something the four of them will likely make fun of later, and the next he’s staring across the table at Davey like he’s just been whacked across the head with something. He’s gone pale, all the color draining from his face. His sketch sits forgotten on the table.

After the meeting ends, he takes off like a shot, catching Davey by the arm and pulling him aside, then dragging him off down the halls.

“What was that about, you think?” Sarah says, nodding after them.

“I don’t know,” says Katherine, “but I don’t think it’s good.”

Jack and Davey don’t resurface for the rest of the day, and when they show up to breakfast the next morning they won’t look at each other.

Davey seeks Katherine out later in the week, sliding into the chair next to hers while she works and pressing his knee to hers under the table.

“Are you ready for a break, Princess?” he says, his tone light and airy, but his gaze heavy as lead.

“Only if you’re offering to keep me company,” she replies.

They walk together up to Davey and Sarah’s rooms, a respectable distance apart until the moment the door closes behind them.

Davey pulls her into a searing kiss, one hand cupping her cheek and the other splayed flat across her back.

“Davey,” Katherine says when they separate, because she can see that he’s shaking, “is something wrong?”

“No,” Davey lies.

“Can I help at all? Do you need anything?”

“You’re all I need right now, love,” says Davey, ducking in to press a much gentler kiss to the high point of her cheek. “Uncomplicated. Fun. Not –“

“Jack,” Katherine finishes, just a breath. “Davey, what happened?”

Davey shakes his head. “Later. Please.”

“Later,” Katherine echoes. “I’ll hold you to that.”

She pushes up onto her toes to kiss him again. They don’t talk for a while after that.

“He loves me,” Davey says to the ceiling, picking up the thread of a conversation they’d stopped having hours ago.

“He said so?” Katherine replies. She rolls onto her side, studying Davey.

Davey nods.

“Why come to me?” says Katherine. “Not that I don’t enjoy your company, Dave, but I’d think –“

“He’s too much right now,” Davey says. “Overwhelming. Complicated.” He turns his head to face her. “Knowing it’s real is - hard.”

“I’m sorry,” she murmurs.

“Is it like this for you and Sarah?” asks Davey. It’s the first time in the three years the two of them have been involved that he’s mentioned his sister’s name in a situation like this. If Katherine didn’t know he was shaken up already, she’d know now.

“Not like you two,” says Katherine. “I like her a lot, but it doesn’t – it doesn’t hurt the way you two do.”

Davey lets out a breathy little laugh. “Good. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”

\--

The night before Katherine marries Jack, Sarah stays with her. They stay up late, they play games and do a puzzle and read together and talk about anything and everything except for Katherine’s impending marriage.

It’s not that it will hurt.

It’s not that tomorrow will change anything between them.

It’s just –

Well, given her own way, Katherine wouldn’t be marrying Jack. But if Katherine weren’t marrying Jack then there wouldn’t be a Sarah to love, or a Davey to care for, or even a Race or Charlie or Les to be fond of. Katherine would be somewhere else, marrying somebody else. Maybe she’d love him.

Maybe she wouldn’t.

She can’t bring herself to be upset that her life has brought her here, but she wishes things could’ve fallen out differently.

Still, she thinks as she braids Sarah’s hair for bed, it could be a lot worse.

(They could be Jack and Davey.)

\--

Katherine wishes she could be surprised when Davey has a massive breakdown the winter after Race’s engagement.

In reality, she’s more surprised that it took him this long to crack.

Still, for all that there’s a heavy ache in her chest at the sight of her best friend in so many tiny fractured pieces, she sees the faintest light at the end of the whole thing. It is so rare for Davey to let Jack care for him anymore, after all.

And here they are, the three of them interwoven with each other on one of Jack and Katherine’s couches, Davey molded to Jack’s side like they’re two halves of a whole.

She just barely hears Jack say it, the faint murmur into Davey’s hair of, “We’ll figure something out for you, Davey-mine,” but Davey’s response is clear as day.

“Isn’t that the problem, though? I’m _yours_.”

It settles inside of Katherine’s chest like broken glass. A sharp pain every time she jostles the words wrong in her memory.

She loves these two so much, and they’re in so much pain. But until they face it, there’s nothing she can do to help.

\--

“I’m in love with Davey,” Jack blurts. It’s a sunny spring afternoon and the four of them are alone in Jack and Katherine’s sitting room.

Davey chokes on his tea.

“Water is wet,” Sarah says lazily, draped across Katherine. “The sky is blue. Racetrack is dumb as a box of rocks.”

“Sarah,” Katherine says, and it comes out closer to a laugh than she means it to.

“What? I thought we were stating obvious things,” says Sarah.

“This is a big deal!” Jack whines.

“It is, honey,” Katherine reassures him. She elbows Sarah.

“Yeah, Jackie, it is,” Sarah agrees. “I’m sure it’s important that you’ve, uh, realized this very obvious thing.”

“He didn’t realize it,” Davey says finally. It’s slow, drawn out. “He’s _telling_ you.”

“I see,” says Katherine. She’s a little bit surprised that he’s managed it.

“What about you, Davey?” asks Sarah.

“I’m in love with Jack,” says Davey, shrugging. “No offense, Kitty.”

“None taken.” Katherine has known _that_ for a long time. “Are you two going to, uh, do anything about that?”

“You could run away together!” Sarah suggests, but the grin slides off of her face almost as quickly as it came. “You wouldn’t, what am I talking about.”

“Don’t even suggest that,” Jack says sharply. “I would _never –_ “

“Jackie,” Davey cuts in gently. He puts a hand on Jack’s arm. “She knows. She was _joking_.”

“I know,” says Jack. “I just –“

“I know.” Davey turns his attention back to Katherine and Sarah. “We’re trying something new. Verbalizing it, you know. But that’s – it’s new and complicated and feels very weird.”

“Sorry, Sarah,” Jack says. “It’s just – god, if we could –“

Katherine waits a beat to see if Jack will continue. He doesn’t.

“You know that you two can be whatever you need to be with us, right?” she says gently. “Even if you can’t run off and get married, I _hope_ you know by now that you don’t have to be Prince John and Royal Advisor David when you’re with the two of us. Just be Jack and Davey, be in love. That’s alright.”

Sarah nods. “I’m sorry I joked about it, I should’ve known that would be a sore spot.”

Her tone is sincere, her expression apologetic. She _did_ know, she _does_ , because all of them have known for a long time that the only reason Jack and Katherine are married at all is that Jack and Davey are both too committed to the kingdom to run away together.

“No, Sar, it’s fine,” says Jack. “I shouldn’t have bitten your head off.” He sighs. “Look, I think things are going to be different now.”

“How different, Jack?” Davey asks softly. “What changes?”

“I don’t know,” Jack admits. “But now’s as good a time as ever to figure it out, yeah?”

Katherine reaches over and pats her husband on the hand. She’s proud of them. It can’t be easy, being how they are.

She and Sarah are lucky that they aren’t quite so attached, she thinks guiltily. She does love Sarah, but it’s not – Jack and Davey are honest-to-God fairytale material, up to the point where it all crashes and burns.

An idea starts to form in the back of Katherine’s mind. She wonders how Davey feels about jewelry.

\--

One unforeseen benefit to Jack and Davey’s newfound commitment is that Katherine finds herself with a whole bunch of extra Sarah time, since the boys are tending to seek each other out over either of them now.

Sarah is stretched out in the grass, enjoying the early spring sunlight. It’s actually quite nice out for once, even though the twins’ birthday has just passed and it’s usually still wet and cold for a few weeks after that.

“Do you ever wish we were like them?” Sarah says idly.

“What, a disaster and a half?” replies Katherine. “Stars, no.”

Sarah laughs. Katherine loves Sarah’s laugh, always bright and clear and never meanspirited even when she laughs at you.

“They _are_ a mess, aren’t they?”

“It’s better now than it used to be.”

Sarah hums, nodding. “I just mean more – I don’t know. Whatever it is they’ve got.”

“No,” Katherine says, but it’s slower. “I think I’m happier without it.”

“Yeah,” says Sarah. She pauses, tucking one arm under her head as she stares up at the sky. Katherine could look at Sarah like this forever. Her hair is spread out like a halo around her, the golden undertones drawn out by the sunlight. At this angle she looks almost like she’s glowing, the soft light catching her face just so. Not for the first time, Katherine finds herself wishing she had Jack’s talent for catching a moment with his bare hands and putting it to page.

“I do love you, though,” Sarah says softly.

Katherine pulls her knee up to her chest, resting her chin on it. “Yeah, Sar. I know.”

“Good,” says Sarah.

“I love you, too,” Katherine replies. She knows Sarah doesn’t really need telling, but she says it anyway.

“I know.”

\--

The year that Davey spends out of the country is odd on a number of fronts.

For one, Sarah finally meets a suitor that doesn’t make her want to run for the hills.

For another, their little unit feels off-balance, even when the three of them aren’t all together.

And for a third –

“We’ve got to do it,” Jack says.

“Do we, though?” replies Katherine.

They are standing on either side of their giant bed – probably fully eight feet apart if not more when accounting for the fact that they’re both giving the mattress something of a safe distance – half dressed and staring at each other.

“We do,” Jack says, wrinkling his nose in distaste. “We could wait until Davey gets home?”

“Everyone would know,” Katherine points out. “It’s too bad Sarah already told us she wouldn’t –“

“Yeah,” Jack agrees.

“Yeah,” says Katherine.

“We should just –“

“We’re working ourselves up over it –“

“Right.”

“Yeah.”

Neither of them moves.

“Oh, this is ridiculous,” Katherine says. Finally, _finally_ , she crawls up onto the bed. She may not want to do this, but at least she’s doing it with _Jack_. She trusts Jack, she loves him. “Come here.”

Jack does, sliding into the spot on the bed where he usually sleeps. “This better be worth all the drama.”

Katherine laughs. “It will be, in the end.”

And then Jack kisses her, which is familiar, but different. And so begins the most awkward sexual encounter Katherine has ever had, some of which could probably be attributed to the fact that she and Jack have never actually done this before. On their wedding night, when the whole kingdom (save two notable exceptions) _assumed_ that this is what they’d be up to, they had stayed up late talking and then fallen asleep with a foot and a half of space between them on the bed.

They are very lucky, Katherine thinks later, that this all worked out on the first try. She’s not entirely sure either of them would survive another attempt.

Sarah teases them for this endlessly, as she is (for a little while, at least) the only one in the country who knows what a painful ordeal the whole thing had been for the both of them. When Davey gets home, he joins right in on the teasing, though his is tempered somewhat with excitement.

If there is one thing Katherine knows about this next chapter of her life, it’s that Davey will be a firmly affixed piece of it. Not that he ever wouldn’t have been, but this feels different. As Sarah grows into her new relationship – it’s going well, Sarah assures Katherine about every four minutes – and Davey and Jack find their footing, it becomes more and more clear that from here on it will be more the three of them than the four.

Still, the first time Katherine sees Sarah hold newborn Felicity – and Sarah is something like the third person to ever hold Felicity, before even Davey – she’s struck by a distant sort of ache. For the first time, Katherine really, _deeply_ understands the way that Davey must have felt that day when they were eighteen and nineteen, when Jack finally realized the depth of his feelings.

This could never have gone another way for the two of them, really. And while Katherine has always known this, always accepted it, there’s this moment when it hits her like a heavy weight.

Sarah seems to see it in her eyes, because she leans in, still cradling Felicity, and kisses Katherine’s forehead.

“She’s beautiful,” Sarah says. “Takes after her mother.”

Katherine smiles tiredly up at her. “Not at the moment.”

“Lies,” says Sarah. “You’re always beautiful. _Especially_ right now, after bringing this precious creature into the world.”

“Thank you,” says Katherine. Sarah perches next to her, reaching over with the arm not supporting Felicity’s tiny body to sweep some of the sweaty hair away from Katherine’s face.

“I love you,” Sarah says. Her voice is soft, pitched low so only Katherine can hear her. “And I’m so proud of you. You and Jack and Davey are going to be amazing parents together.”

“I love you,” Katherine replies.

Sarah hands Felicity back over to her. “And if you ever need or want it, I’ll always be there to help. You know where to find me.”

“I do.”

Sarah presses another gentle kiss to Katherine’s forehead. For a long moment, it feels so easy for Katherine to pretend that she and Sarah and Felicity are the only people in the whole entire world.

The bubble pops almost audibly as Medda enters the room to meet her granddaughter.

Sometimes Katherine wishes things had fallen differently. But, as Jack reenters the room with Davey on his heels, she finds she really can’t complain. Sarah stays perched on the side of the bed, and Jack climbs up on Katherine’s other side, while Davey stands nearby, gently rocking Felicity.

Her four favorite people in the world.

Katherine relaxes, leaning back on her pillows and letting Jack and Davey and Sarah drive the conversation. She loves them, she loves them, she loves them.

She wouldn’t trade this life for all the treasures in all the world. She’s exactly where she belongs.


End file.
